Rex Larsen | The Grand Rapids PressSederick Moore has his first home of his own thanks to Debra Lotan and other friends who helped raise money, arrange financing, furnish and decorate the house at 1053 Oakdale Ave. SE, purchased for $22,000. Moore, who has health problems and lives on disability income, just moved into the house with his 18-year-old son.

GRAND RAPIDS — When Sederick Moore gets up each morning, he spends time sitting on his porch looking at his black-eyed susans and hibiscus in full bloom.

He walks his floors and looks through his windows to his backyard.

All of it his. He brims with a pride of home ownership.

Living on a disability income due to severe and chronic health problems, he was sure that owning a home is something that would evade him his entire life. But it did not prevent him from wishing for it.

“I would go to bed praying that God would bless me with a home one day,” said Moore, 48, a father and grandfather. “I just wanted something to call my own before I leave here.”

Thanks to the hard and generous work of friends and strangers, Moore’s prayers have been answered.

Last week he took possession of 1053 Oakdale Ave. SE in Grand Rapids.

While owning the home is a new chapter in Moore’s life, Moore brings a new chapter to the home’s life, too.

The Press in April told the story of 1053 Oakdale, a house built in 1925 and home to seven families over the years.

Titled “Obituary of a Home,” the news story chronicled the joys and sorrows within its walls during the home’s 84 years before it fell into foreclosure.

In 2009, it became one of the more than 8,000 vacant homes scattered throughout city. Census data increases that number to nearly 20,000 when taking in all of Kent County.

But before those houses became a sorry statistic, they were a source of shelter, security, warmth and a sense of belonging.

That is what 1053 Oakdale now represents to Moore.

He used to work in the restaurant business. It started as a job after high school to pay his tuition bills at Davenport University where he was studying to become an emergency medical technician. But his illness prevented him from finishing school, he said.

He continued working in restaurants, moving up to management and becoming a corporate trainer for the now defunct Cheddar’s restaurants, traveling the country to train other managers in the chain.

But in 1996 his illnesses became debilitating. He long suffered from sarcardosis, which affects his lungs. But depression-induced alcohol abuse resulted in pancreatitis, too, which causes severe pain. Now he is on pain management and often needs hospitalization.

His income consists of a $900 monthly disability check and money he gets from odd jobs like cleaning homes, walking dogs and lawn work.

For several years he and his son, now 18, lived in two-bedroom apartment near Kalamazoo Avenue and Burton Street SE. His daughter, 21, would often stay with him, too. She has a 5-month-old and a 2-year-old.

But last year his life changed with one simple question from a friend.

”She said: What do I want out of life?” Moore recalled.

The question was put to him by Debra Lotan, who met Moore when she moved into her home on Calvin Avenue SE about seven years ago. Moore’s best friend for more than 25 years, Mitch McLeod, lived next door, so Moore spent a lot of time there.

Something about Moore and his story moved her.

”While I agree he didn’t make all the right decisions, everybody in life deserves a second chance,” she said.

So she wanted to help him. Answering her question, Moore told her his prayer for home ownership.

Lotan, a vice president at Fifth Third Bank, realized that for what he was paying in rent — $600 a month about to be bumped to $610 — he could more than afford a monthly mortgage payment at today’s interest rates and home prices. In fact, he would save about $200 a month.

“When I started talking to him about it, he thought it was impossible,” Lotan said. “I said, ‘It’s the American Dream, Sederick. There’s no reason that somebody can’t give you a hand up in realizing it and having a place where someone isn’t going to raise the rent every year.’”

“We had someone donate a pig (to be butchered) and we solicited $10 donations to put your name in a hat,” she said. “We raised about $2,200 that way.”

She cleaned out her house and accepted donations from others to hold a yard sale that raised $300. She made direct requests to coworkers, vendors, friends and family.

All totaled, they raised about $4,000.

Moore’s credit score did not allow him to get traditional financing, so McLeod got the loan, giving Moore time to rebuild his credit and assume the mortgage.

”My mom thinks it’s going to be a challenge for me,” Moore said. “She’s worried about me, but she’s been coming by every day.”

”And we’ll be there every step of the way,” McLeod said.

Finding a home was not a quick job, either. Moore, Lotan and McLeod looked for more than four months, losing out on at least one that Moore had his heart set on. But then he saw 1053 Oakdale, the four-bedroom bungalow.

”When I first saw it, I knew it was the one,” he said. “Because the house I always dreamed about was a bungalow house, for years and years and years. This is the kind of house I wanted.”

They bought the home for $22,000 and took possession last week.

But the nearly two years of vacancy had taken its toll in the form of large chunks of peeling paint and other needed repairs. And, most costly, all the copper had been stolen from the basement.

But McLeod and Lotan and the several others they recruited are not done yet. They still are looking for contributors to “sponsor” a room in the home and supply the paint, window treatments, etc. There also is an account at Fifth Third where people can contribute.

McLeod sponsored the master bathroom while Lotan picked up the master bedroom. Moore hasn’t slept in it yet, though.

“I’m afraid I’ll mess it up, so I’ve slept on the sofa,” he said.

Moore himself sponsored the living room and dining room by purchasing his first ever brand new set of furniture from an Art Van furniture store.

“I’ve been on my own since I was 19 or 20 and never had a matching set of furniture,” he said.

It sits in the home wrapped in plastic until the painting is complete. And he turned the back bedroom into den with his old furniture for his grandchildren to watch TV.

“I don’t want them on my new furniture,” he said, smiling.

Lotan said people who have joined the effort are getting just as much as a gift as Moore.

“I owe as much to Sederick as he may think he owes to me,” she said. “And he owes me nothing.”

Lotan said one of her coworkers put it best when she said: “It’s been fun giving hope where there was none.”

“It’s easier than most people think,” Lotan said.

Moore is beyond overwhelmed by the kindness shown to him by friends and strangers. He knows this is a tremendous “pay it forward opportunity.”

”I just want to thank all of them,” he said, listing the names of the several people he’s met throughout this process. “They are a dream come true for me.